In the early 1920s farm leaders began pressing for rural electrification.  If existing investor-owned
power companies wouldn't help the farmers, the farmers would help themselves.  They began to
organize their own electric cooperatives.  Farmers in Navarro County started to work in 1936 to
organize a cooperative to serve their needs.  The first recorded meeting of the incorporators and
directors of the Navarro County Electric Cooperative, Inc. was held in Beauford Jester's office in the
Jester Building in the city of Corsicana, Tx, Navarro County at 2:30 pm on the 26th day of
November 1937.

The first official meeting consisted of election of officers and board members.  The board members
present at this meeting were E. P. Estes, elected president, L. I. Griffin, elected secretary, and the
remaining board members were William J. Bain, E. B. Dawson, Earl M. Dawson, Burney Moore, and
Robert P. Garret.  The Chairman, E. P. Estes, reported at this meeting that the original copy of the
Articles of Incorporation were filed on November 19th, 1937 in the office of the Secretary of State,
and that under the date of November 19th, 1937, the Secretary of State had issued a Certificate of
Incorporation to the incorporators.
View the
»NCEC Bylaws.

Beauford H. Jester was appointed by the board to be counsel of the new Corporation.  The
Cooperative was organized to be a private, non-profit enterprise, locally owned and managed, and
incorporated under state law, to be controlled by the members it serves, with each member having
one vote in the affairs of the Cooperative.  The cooperative membership elects a director for a
designated area to be their representative on the board.
The first step after the organization was to secure funds to build electric distribution lines in the rural areas.  The funds were  provided
under the Rural Electrification Act of 1936, which established the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) as a lending agency for the
federal government.  The first request for funds was $100,000 to build 92 miles of distribution line in Navarro and Hill counties.

The Cooperative's first office was in the Jester Building on West 5th Avenue in Corsicana.  The first building was at 214 N. Main Street.  
Later, the Cooperative built a new office-warehouse facility at 319 West 7th in 1950.  In 1975, the Cooperative moved to its present
location on west Highway 22 on the western edge of Corsicana.  From this humble beginning the Cooperative has grown to over 2900
miles of line (in 2012) serving over 14,776 meters in Navarro, Hill, Ellis, Freestone, and Limestone counties.
  • 1937-1941
  • 1941-1946
  • 1946-1960
  • 1960-1975
  • 1975-1979
  • 1979-1984
  • 1985-2003
  • 2003-Present   
Clyde Kimes
Ben Templeton       
Osie Cauble                          
Raymond Hampel, Jr.            
Joe Felder                            
Max Graham                        
Billy Gillespie                       
Billy Jones                                  
Copyright © 2003-2012 NCEC, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Past and Present Managers of NCEC
History of Navarro County Electric Cooperative